Rich Schefren Didn’t See This One Coming…
Willie Crawford posted this photo up on his blog. It’s a snapshot he took at the Las Vegas networking event attended by a bunch of people, including myself and Rich Schefren, the target of my tom foolery in the photo…
Rich definitely didn’t see that coming and probably hasn’t seen the photo yet, but now he will 
.
Rich may not have noticed my joking around (he was in a serious discussion at the time so he had an excuse) but in general he’s definitely one of the best guys I know of at predicting the future and seeing the big picture when it comes to business.
Right now he’s completing the final touches on his next report, the latest incarnation of the ideas he began with the Internet Business Manifesto, which as I explained to my newsletter subscribers, is the best free report I have read – it had the most impact on my business of anything I have studied online.
If you haven’t got the Manifesto yet, now is the perfect time to download it and read it in preparation for what is to come.
Download The Internet Business Manifesto
Did You Miss The Call?
A couple of days ago I was included on a call with Rich Schefren and a bunch of his previous clients, all of whom are tremendously successful Internet business owners.
If you missed the call you can listen to the streaming version here -
The Internet Business Manifesto Teleseminar
The call was a special series of expert-only interviews, where Rich interrogated each of us by asking the following four questions -
“Click Here To Order” by Joel Comm
As a blogger with some exposure in my market one of the “perks” is an endless stream of freebie books sent my way from authors and publishers all trying to score publicity for their latest releases. This is one of the first benefits you can enjoy once your blog starts to build a readership (sometimes you do need to ask for free stuff for reviewing purposes though).
Unfortunately in my position – especially now as I travel – I rarely have time to finish all the possible books that come my way, so I tend to say “no thanks” to books rather than waste the paper. However I do say “yes please” to a few that really catch my eye and today I have such a book, one that I knew I wanted as soon as I first heard about it.
The book is called “Click Here To Order” by Joel Comm – Stories of the worlds most successful Internet marketing entrepreneurs.
Joel told me about this book back in July 08 when it was slated for an early August release. It was pushed back to September 2nd and I was sent my review copy a few weeks ago. I’m almost done reading it and it has been a thoroughly enjoyable romp through what is obviously a big focus in my life – Internet marketing. I can really plow through a book when I enjoy the subject matter and this is definitely such a case.
A Trip Back In Internet Time
AdSense Secrets 4.0 From Joel Comm and a Big Competition From Lee Dodd
I’m in the middle of madly recording some videos so I don’t have to worry about video set-up while island hopping from Brisbane to Fiji to Hawaii then on to Canada. It’s crazy all the things you have to do when you leave home for six months.
I have a great post coming up later this week on the topic of Internet business and travel freedom, but it’s not quite done cooking yet. I’ll have it out to you before I board the plane next week.
In the meantime, a couple of short updates for you today…
AdSense Secrets For $10
Joel Comm zapped me an email a few days ago to let me know he’s got his new updated version of AdSense Secrets, his very popular book on making money with Google AdSense coming out today.
He’s decided to drop the price from $97 to $9.95 for the latest version, which in my opinion is a darn good price. When you order there is a membership continuity program you are automatically enrolled in (the first month is free), so just be careful to read everything when purchasing (you don’t have to spend any more than $9.95 if you don’t want to).
I’m not an AdSense specialist, but Joel is definitely someone who has been in the AdSense game for a long, long time and I’ve heard good things about his previous books on the subject. It’s also worth checking out the order page to see how Joel presents the video (you have to expect something polished from the guy who did the Next Internet Millionaire web reality show).
To grab a copy of the book go to www.adsense-secrets.com
Two Forums Merge And You Get Prizes
Lee Dodd, who I call “the forum guy” is pretty much the only person I refer to when it comes to monetizing forums.
He’s busy again, this time merging two large forums together. Lee passed on this notice to me about the merger news and a special competition he is running to celebrate –
Two of the Top 10 webmaster forums have merged! Webmaster-Talk and Earners Forum have joined forces to create much more than just a forum – now users have access to an enhanced marketplace, informative articles, blogs, interviews, and valuable tools. Along with the new features, Webmaster-Talk.com has also gained thousands of new members.
And what better way to celebrate a huge merger than with a huge contest! That’s exactly what we’re doing, offering over $25,000 in prizes!
There will be 5 winners, and each one will receive this prize package:
- Macbook Air
- Flip Camera
- $500 Cash in Max Bounty Account
- iPod Touch
- Nintendo DS Lite from RevResponse.com
- $250 Cash in Pepperjam Network Account
- $500 Gift Certificate from Text Link Ads
- 24 Custom Shirts for the site of your choice from N Designs (4-color, you pick the color t-shirt, front side printing only)
- Revolution Theme Multiple Use Package from WordPress ($199.95 regular price)
- Interspire Premium Shopping Cart Package
The contest is at Webmaster-Talk.com, and ends May 13th at midnight.
Who I Think Should Win The Next Internet Millionaire
Following hot on the heels of the interesting Next Internet Millionaire episode 10 about blogging, comes the penultimate episode (episode 12), where the final two contestants, Charles Trippy (never has a surname been more appropriate for a personality – Charles really is kinda trippy) and Jaime Luchuck, the great Canadian hope, reveal the products they propose to Joel for their joint venture.
On the same episode, Rich Schefren is the feature expert, which made for a compelling watch all round. We get to see Rich talk about attention, then we get to hear what products Charles and Jaime want to release and then finally, the big surprise – Joel decides to back both products and JV with both contestants.
There is still a $25,000 prize on the line and of course the title of winner of The Next Internet Millionaire, but for the contestants, the hope is that their products will sell well enough that $25,000 won’t really seem like all that much. For Joel, he gets to be involved with the release of two products – he’s smart enough to see money in something and back it – so why not do it twice?
What Are The Products?
Here’s what they came up with:
The Next Internet Millionaire Show Covers Blogging
I’ve been keeping up with the Next Internet Millionaire reality web show, usually watching an episode at lunch each week. If you have fallen behind you can catch up on all the episodes here.
While the show has its ups and downs, overall I think Joel and Eric are doing a fantastic job with this very ambitious project. Obviously I’m biased because the topic is Internet marketing so not a single episode goes by where I don’t enjoy what’s covered, but the last episode I watched, episode 10, was especially interesting because they finally focused on blogging.
Dave Taylor was the resident expert on hand to teach the remaining contestants about blogging and social media.
Watching how the contestants handle the tasks they are given is generally the most entertaining part of show and in episode 10 the assignment was particularly interesting. It was straight forward – you have eight hours to go out and drive as much traffic to your blog as you can. The students were given a ready made blog and the focus was a charity cause.
I found myself thinking that I would have leveraged the fact that they were contestants on the Next Internet Millionaire reality show and used that as an entry point, along with the charity blog premise, to contact all the top bloggers and get them to write about it. One post on a top blog would have been enough to crush the competition.
In the end one team did have an interesting approach focusing on various communities, such as LiveJournal, to attract attention. This was a good strategy because you get live people actually sitting in front of the computer at that time. If you go send out emails to people by the time you get in touch the eight hours may be over.
If you had eight hours to build as much buzz about your blog and attract links and traffic, what would you do?
